Jerusalem Tracker 15.2: New Media, Developments, and Events about the Holy City
Helpful lists of new material about Jerusalem
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This is the 15th installment of Jerusalem Tracker, a quarterly list of every new publication I can find about historical Jerusalem. I published part 1 last week, highlighting new academic publications (read it here). Part 2 is included below, covering new media, events, and developments related to historical Jerusalem. To make these lists, I manually comb through hundreds of periodicals, publishing house websites, newsletters, popular outlets, blogs, social media feeds, and other online spaces. See the archive of previous lists here.
The following criteria apply to items listed below:
They must deal with an aspect of historical Jerusalem: its direct study, appropriation, or something else.
Material about Jerusalem’s hinterland is included only when there is a direct connection to the historical basin.
Some items were written in languages other than English but can be translated via browser extensions or other tools.
Most material on this list was issued after late March 2026, but older items may appear if I omitted them previously by accident.
The study of Jerusalem is inherently variegated. Material or publication outlets listed below do not imply an endorsement of the views they express unless stated otherwise.
If you sense that any relevant resources are missing, please feel free to leave a comment or send an email to approachingjerusalem@gmail.com.
New Pop/Social Media and Blogs about Jerusalem
The Ketef Hinnom Amulets: Wearing the Priestly Blessing for Protection (Jeremy D. Smoak/TheTorah.com)
Psalm 122: A Visit to the Jerusalem of Old (Adele Berlin/TheTorah.com)
The Siloam Tunnel Inscription: A Multimodal Reading by Angela Roskop Erisman
Was the Siloam Inscription a Message for the Dead? (Lauren K. McCormick/Biblical Archaeology Society)
Axe Upon Axe: A new interpretation of the famous Siloam Inscription (Alex Stein/Love of the Land)
Laying Out the Last Supper: What Did Jesus’s Final Meal Actually Look Like? (Clinton J. Moyer/Biblical Archaeology Society)
Is the Tomb of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem the Real One? (Caleb Howells/Greek Reporter)
The Roman Conquest of Jerusalem: How were the siegeworks deployed around the city? (Clinton J. Moyer/Biblical Archaeology Society)
2,000 years ago, ancient Roman forces annihilated Jerusalem. Was its destruction inevitable? (James Osborne/History Extra)
The Historical Corner: 1,700 Years of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Adam Ackerman/Kol Ha’Ir)
Owning Books and Preserving Documents in Medieval Jerusalem—Book Review (Dianna Wray/Aramco World)
The Historical Corner: The Crusader Enclave in Jerusalem (Adam Ackerman/Kol Ha’Ir)
Housing a Nation’s Memory: The Story of the Palestine Heritage Museum in Jerusalem (Aseel Jundi/Jerusalem Story)
The wonderful bluff of the Muristan (Tamar Hayardeni)
The Poems and Rivers of Jerusalem By Shai Secunda (Shai Secunda/Jewish Review of Books)
Protecting Heritage & ‘Jerusalem Syndrome’: Then and Now (Aren Maeir/Times of Israel Blog)
Beneath the Western Wall, a hidden Jerusalem is revealed (Shilo Freid/YNET)
Western Wall stone on display at IDF HQ brought back to Jerusalem’s Old City (Rossella Tercatin/Times of Israel)
New Digital Resources related to Jerusalem
Audio
Sennacherib’s Throne Room of Doom, or Hezekiah Can See His House from Here (This Week in the Ancient Near East)
Nine Quarters of Jerusalem (Stories from Jerusalem/al-Quds)
Ceremony of the Holy Fire in the Holy Sepulcher church in Jerusalem (Stories from Jerusalem/al-Quds)
The Alter Levin House in the Romema Neighborhood, Jerusalem – with Tamar Hayardeni (Yad Ben Zvi)
Video
Katja Soennecken - From Kaiser to AI: Current Projects of the DEI Jerusalem (Albright Live)
Site Formation Processes in the Eastern Part of the Temple Mount from the Middle Ages to the Present Day (Temple Mont Sifting Project)
This lecture is in Hebrew. See English summary here.
A Virtual Tour of Jerusalem’s Recently Reopened Benei Hezir Tomb Complex, with an Intriguing Connection to a Key Figure from the New Testament (Don Binder/The Emmaus Road Project)
Guardians of Memory: The Story of the Yad Ben-Zvi Library and Archives (Hebrew)
Discovering the Seal Impressions of the Prophet Jeremiah’s Captors (Armstrong Institute)
Virtual Jerusalem walks:
New Developments in Jerusalem
A new study co-directed by Joe Uziel and Yiftah Shalev is titled “Sealed and Sent: A Long-Term Follow-Up Study of Bullae from Jerusalem and Its Implications for Understanding the City’s Administration.” While most studies of Judahite bullae focus on the inscriptions or iconography stamped into the clay, this new effort will explore bullae uncovered in Jerusalem in a more holistic manner. This includes: documenting preserved markings on the back of the bullae in order to clarify their ancient uses, identifying any preserved fingerprints, and undertaking an analysis of the clay to determine their origin. This new data should be very helpful. See the following summaries:
Ancient Muslim Graves and Rare Toads: The Fight Over Renovating Jerusalem’s Mamilla Pool (Nir Hasson/Haaretz)
In his new Substack newsletter, Don Binder raises issues in the interpretation and display of antiquities in the City of David National Park, as well as the archaeological methodologies employed there:
Archaeology as Destruction at Birket el-Hamra (Don Binder/The Emmaus Road Project)
Jerusalem’s Disappearing Pilgrim Road (Don Binder/The Emmaus Road Project)
See my recent note on the use of the term “Pilgrims’ Road.”
Aren Maeir recently published an article discussing the rock-cut rooms located just above the spring on the Southeastern Hill. This is a reply to Eli Shukron, who excavated some of these rooms. He argued that they were cultic in nature and constituted a kind of temple (his “Temple Zero”). Shukron also dated them as early as the second millennium BCE (Middle Bronze Age) and has suggested that it was the location where Abraham met Melchizedek as described in Genesis 14. Maeir proposes instead that these rooms date only to the time of the Judahite monarchy (Iron Age II). He suggests that they were not primarily cultic but were related to manufacturing.
See this summary by Christopher Eames.
Upcoming Events about Jerusalem
18 June 12:00pm ET: the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society is hosting a virtual lecture by Guy Rogers entitled “For the Freedom of Zion: The Great Revolt of Jews against Romans, 66-74 CE.” Register here.
7-10 July: “Jerusalem: between East and West,” a conference hosted by the Yad Ben Zvi Institute. Registration for all three days is free. Details here. Register here.
Paid Subscribers
16 June (8:00-9:30pm ET): the quarterly livestream for paid supporters.
During these events, I discuss excavations, publications, pop media articles, and relevant developments for historical Jerusalem. I also share resources and occasionally present original research. Participants have the opportunity to ask questions.
Paid subscribers also get access to the archive of previous livestreams, which is currently about 16 hours of watch time.
This material was 100% human composed. We do not use AI at any stage of research or writing.
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